Page 21 of Transfiguration
“Um, do you need anything else?” He glanced at her bag, knowing he’d bought her a package of underwear, some pajamas, and a couple of days’ worth of clothes. He’d have to wash those. “Do you want to change into your pjs and I’ll wash your other stuff? We can find more clothes for you tomorrow.”
“Can I shower?” Bella asked.
“Sure.” He looked at the open shower stall. There was soap and shampoo in there, but he didn’t think they were girly. Luca bought all that stuff, high end, but since they all had a strong sense of smell, the scents were minimal. “Soap in there. Hopefully, they don’t smell bad?”
She nodded and pulled a few things out of her little backpack, then headed into the bathroom. “Can I lock this?” She asked, hand on the door.
“Yes,” Con said, picking up her bag. “Can I wash these?”
She stared at him a minute before nodding and closing the door. The clunk of the lock engaging let him know she’d locked them out. Not that they couldn’t break the door down if they needed to, but it was unlikely anyone was going to attack her in the shower.
Con picked up the bag and headed to the kitchen where their single washer and dryer combo machine was and stuffed everything in. It was all colors anyway. Sam followed, silent, but his gaze intent.
“You okay?” Con asked. He wondered if knowing about Matthew’s ghost hanging out in Hart’s office had Sam struggling. It was hard to read him a lot of days, but silence for Sam usually meant something was bothering him.
“Mostly,” Sam said. “You?”
“A kid…”
“Yeah, you want to talk about that?” Sam prodded gently. “She saw Kat?”
Con turned on the machine and stood up to lean against the counter. The pain of losing Kat suddenly surging back as though it were yesterday rather than years ago. “Why does it still hurt so much?” he asked.
Sam slid in close, wrapping his arms around Con and reaching up to wrap a hand in his hair. “I’m sorry. I wish I could ease the pain.”
Con leaned into him, letting Sam hold him. Luca appeared and wrapped his arms around them. “I know a way of helping you forget.” He rubbed Con’s cock through his pants, teasing.
Sam snorted. “Horn dog.”
“We can’t do that… Bella is right there,” Con said, pointing to the room. But the door was closed, and the shower was on.
“No?” Luca asked and pressed his lips to Con, teasing the piercings of the snakebite with his tongue before delving between Con’s lips. Con sighed into Luca’s mouth, relaxing into his warmth, while Sam held him up. Sometimes it was okay to feel like the weakest link of their trio. He liked when they took care of him. If he wasn’t so damn tired, he’d drag them upstairs and show them how much he missed them. Maybe he could put up a wind spell to dissipate the sound? But he needed sleep. Getting old really sucked. Not really sleeping in three days made it worse.
The shower turned off, and Con jolted, pulling away, fearing Bella would emerge and see something she shouldn’t. “I should probably move some of the art…” His gaze fell on a giant rainbow painting of an uncut dick that hung near the couch in the living room. Art, Luca called it. Sam found it amusing. Con had always thought it a bit… strange, but a dick was a dick, and had never really bothered him. It wasn’t like they ever had guests.
“You should get some sleep,” Sam said. “I’ll move some stuff around.” He let go and headed to the door to Bella’s space, knocking lightly. “Do you need anything, Bella? Food, something to drink? I’m going to put Con to bed, and you should sleep too.”
“I’m okay,” Bella answered without opening the door.
“All right. Have a good night.” Sam said. He made his way to the fridge, frowning at the empty shelves. Luca ordered out a lot. The restaurants around their flat had a lot of chefs happy to cater to the wealthy. Con still didn’t consider himself wealthy, though he had a sizable savings account, and technically all of this space and everything in it was as much his as theirs. When he wasn’t on retrieval work, he often did evenings at the bar, tending mostly for background noise. It was that or play video games and never experience humanity. He preferred games to people, but being a hermit made him cranky.
He sighed and eyed the stairs like they were Mount Everest. He could use a shower too, but just wanted to sleep. He headed up, yanking off clothes and shoving them into his hamper. Con left only his undies, mostly because he worried about the little girl downstairs, and laid down on the bed. His heart still raced a little. Anxiety churning over a dozen things. Would he even be able to sleep?
Sam crawled up into the bed beside him, tugging the blankets up around them. Con wanted to protest that Sam should hide Luca’s strange art fetish, but Sam didn’t need the sleep, not until the sun rose. “Thanks,” Con whispered as Sam tucked himself in beside him, his fingers finding one of Con’s tattoos to trace. The caress was settling, and Con felt his eyes grow heavy. “I love you; you know that right?” He muttered, his face in the pillow.
“I do,” Sam said, the sound of a smile in his tone. “I love you, too. Sleep. We’ll tackle the next hurdle after you’ve had some rest.”
“Fuck,” Con mumbled into the pillow as his heart slowed, the anxiety evaporating with Sam’s touch, and sleep sucked him down. “Watch over Bella, K?”
“Promise,” Sam said, and that’s all Con remembered before he fell asleep.
TEN
Sam moved around the apartment, taking down statues, paintings and knickknacks. All phallic art. Luca frowned.
“It will be fine,” Sam said softly, keeping his voice down to not wake Con or Bella. “Why don’t you get some sleep?”
“Not tired,” Luca admitted. He felt on edge, a trickle of red floating around the threshold of his vision, so faint he wasn’t certain he was actually seeing it. A small pink invasion in their life had interrupted the plans for the evening. He’d never even considered having a kid. Not even the many times they’d watched Rou or Harding’s kids. It was something other people did.